I've been monkeying around with some ideas for providing a dry seat (most of the time) while piloting my AI. The seat bucket sits below the water level right off the bat, so there's always a small puddle of water there in the bucket. It's a simple matter to install a thicker seat (pad, etc.) but this doesn't solve the problem of water splashing in and making the puddle deeper while the excess attempts to get back out. In fact some of the pads I've tried actually made matters worse, by sealing off easy escape routes for the excess water.

To that end I made up a seat grid that raises my butt up out of the standing puddle, but allows incoming water to work its way back out without piling up around and on me. Yes, the splash will still get me wet, but hopefully the normal puddle will no longer get deeper as excess water comes in. I'll find out tomorrow.

I have some clean up to do and then I'll reinstall the standard Hobie AI seat.

Yes I did. The thing is, I can get the strips off the AI hull plastic with no damage to the plastic. Not sure that I could remove them from the seat bottom.

If it works however, I might consider mounting them on the seat bottom.

I have no idea if Hobie will ever address this issue (they may not even consider it an issue) but if so, I think they have two solutions - Either raise the seat bucket by an inch, or supply a thicker seat bottom with rigid open channels on the bottom.

The band that contains the seat pegs will still engage. There is a crease there that will allow the rest of the seat to sit higher. I have a piece of foam, the same thickness as that glued to the seat bucket, that is now velcroed over the section where the seat pegs are. So the seat isn't going to be moving around. It's still locked in place.

The band that contains the seat pegs will still engage. There is a crease there that will allow the rest of the seat to sit higher. I have a piece of foam, the same thickness as that glued to the seat bucket, that is now velcroed over the section where the seat pegs are. So the seat isn't going to be moving around. It's still locked in place.

I also have a slab of foam under my seat about 1 and 1/2 inch thick. The seat base sitts up over the foam well and keeps me a bit out of the puddle.

Maybee, I also need to carve some drain grid channels into the underside of my foam.

This might do a similar job the the glued on foam. So I might give it a try, it can't do any harm.

_________________GeordieWest Ausie

Last edited by Geordie on Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think you should try it. I just got back from a few hours on the water. Good wind, plenty of spray and wash over and into the cockpit. Sure, my butt still got wet, but not from sitting in a standing pool of water. The grid performed exactly as I had hoped - whatever came in went right back out and my backside sat a half inch above anything that was pooled there during calm periods.

I think Hobie could cure this with a slightly thicker seat cushion featuring a rigid open-grid on the bottom. I couldn't be happier with how mine worked today.

Good to hear the test run was a succes Tom, it sounds like you are onto a good idea.

I kept on thinking that the seat directly over the drain holes was counter productive. Sort of like a one way valve only the wrong way. That might be my next addition, some small one way valves in the drain holes as well as the grid seat drain.

Where did you get the foam and what kind of adhesive did you use? I went to my local hardware store but they didn't have anything similar. I really like this idea. I've been trying to find a check valve that will work in the scuppers but haven't found anything that will work well so I think this is the best solution.